


Attack of the Clones

by JeckParadox



Category: Storm Hawks
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Clones, F/F, Replicators
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-16
Updated: 2016-11-16
Packaged: 2018-08-23 22:06:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8344570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JeckParadox/pseuds/JeckParadox
Summary: Their complicated ruse ends up not making a difference, and Snipe manages to get away with the black box and the cloning Crystal. With the ability to create an army of clones, Cyclonia may be more dangerous than ever before, that is, if clones didn't come with their own problems.Diverging from the events in the season 1 episode "InFinnity"





	

"I've got your gizmo, Master Cyclonis." Snipe said, bowing before the sorceress. She turned away from her work, to smile down at him. 

"Excellent work, Snipe." she walked forwards and opened the box, pulling out a stone pyramid. 

"Uh, what does it do?"

"Do you honestly care?" she asked. The giant of a man considered it for a few seconds, before shrugging, "I thought so. Job done well all the same. I take it the Storm Hawk's interference wasn't a problem?"

"Of course not! Those wimps weren't a threat at all, once I saw through their ingenious disguises." she dismissed him with a wave of her hand, taking the Cloning Crystal and hiding it in her Crystal Bag.

* * *

"Master Cyclonis." Dark Ace greeted, bowing to her as he entered the room. "You called for me?"

"Dark Ace." She said with a smile. "You... trust me, do you not?"

"With my life." he said easily. "Have I not been anything but loyal to you, in all the years we've worked together?"

"No, your loyalty has never once failed me. You are the most competent and skilled- no, you are Cyclonia's easily most competent and skilled warrior. You are worth a thousand Talons, in battle." she complimented. He smiled at the praise. "I have often wished that I had more of you."

"If only such a thing were possible."

She smiled darkly, handing him the stone pyramid. She then walked to the other end of the room. "Dark Ace, would you be willing to test something for me? I believe it could change the entire path of Cyclonia's future. You have your weapons and Crystals on your person, yes?"

"As you have told me." He said, slightly nervous, as he looked down at the object in his hand. "What would you like me to test? An experimental weapon?"

"Of a sort. Tell me, did you ever have siblings, Dark Ace?"

"No." he answered shortly. His Master never spoke of personal things, and spoke even less of Dark Ace's life before he betrayed Atmos to serve Cyclonia. He was beginning to become actually worried. 

"Then this should prove interesting to you." She raised her staff, a glowing gold Solar Crystal held in its metal claws. The beam shot out, and before he had a chance to react, the pulse of sunlight was already gone. The pyramid in his hands opened up, glowing blue, and to his surprise, a copy of himself began to take form next to him. The other Dark Ace blinked in just as much surprise. 

"Master Cyclonis?" the original asked, alarmed, "What type of Crystal is this?"

"One I assumed simply to be a hoax, or a fairytale." She said, smiling with pure delight over the implications of the Cloning Crystal. "It seemed too good to be true."

The copy looked at his hands, before drawing his weapon. Both the original and Cyclonis responded immediately, drawing their own weapons and aiming for him, but the copy simply held it in his hands, adjusting it and feeling the balance. "Am I... real?" the copy asked. 

"If the legends are true, you are just as real as the original." she said, ecstatic. "Imagine, Dark Aces, a whole squad of fighters equally as competent as yourselves. A whole army, if the Crystal is capable of that much output!"

"I'm... not sure I'm comfortable with this." the first Ace said quietly, looking at his double uneasily, not trusting. 

She looked between the two of them, considering the possibilities. "Yes... I suppose you have a point," she conceded, "how will the empire react to there suddenly being a great number of one of their highest-ranking officials?"

"I was more considering the fact that there are now **two** of me." he clarified. "This changes everything!"

"Dark Ace." Cyclonis said, "you are undoubtedly my greatest champion. Thinking, only in terms of what will best aid in Cyclonia's benefit, what will affect our war effort the most, shouldn't the gain we would get from replicating you far outshine any feelings of discomfort about your identity?"

"...You are correct, Master Cyclonis." the second Dark Ace answered. "Those Storm Hawks might have been able to slip past me before, but now, with two of us acting together, we would surely conquer them. It is... disconcerting, to say the least, to know I'm a replica, but I am happy to serve."

Dark Ace frowned at his copy, "I wouldn't dare to disobey you, Master Cyclonis. But as you said, this Crystal was something you thought of as a myth. Who knows the true nature of these copies? It could be a security risk." he narrowed his eyes with the accusation. "Some force, merely forming an illusion of me."

"Your concerns are appreciated." Cyclonis said. "I'll of course begin testing the clone to make sure he is truly identical." she held out her hand for the pyramid, and Dark Ace gladly returned it. 

She turned to the copy, "It shall become confusing, if I continued to refer to the both of you as 'Dark Ace'. Any thoughts on a new name? He is, truly, the original." She said, pointing towards the first Ace. "And I won't be forcing him to change his name."

"...I will accept any title you give me, Master." 

She nodded. "Follow me, we have tests to undertake."

Dark Ace shuddered, sympathizing with his clone, and feeling a twinge of fear at his Master. She experimented on others, surely. But never on him. Never on her elite. But he told himself that it was only a copy. He left, deciding he would try to forget the confusing events of that morning. 

* * *

"Perhaps we should continue with the naming scheme." She said, watching the clone from the corner of her eyes.

"Scheme, Master Cyclonis?"

"You know, a card-based scheme? Perhaps we should call you Dark King, and the next clone Dark Queen, and the one after Dark Jack, and then Dark Nine and so on."

"If I may interrupt, Master? I chose the title Dark Ace off the idea of an 'ace pilot'." 

"Ah."

They continued on in silence, before they reached the laboratory. She had him take off the majority of his armor, and placed the items under magnification devices and a number of sensors. "As far as I can tell, everything you had on you was also perfectly replicated." She smiled evilly. "I have a number of rare, even unique, crystals I wouldn't mind having a spare of." She smiled at the clone. "Everything seems fine. You're just as real as the other Dark Ace, although..."

"Master, please do not keep me in suspense. This is perhaps the strangest day of my life."

"As you wish. The Cloning Crystal is activated, and fueled, by sunlight, or Solar energy. There is a way to reverse the cloning process by utilizing moonlight, or energy from a Moon Crystal."

"And if the process were reversed-"

"It would kill you or any clone near-instantly."

The clone nodded, grim. "That's... a significant weakness. I did much of my work by night."

"Not just any beam of moonlight will harm you, but if moonlight were to hit the Cloning Crystal in a clone's presence, the magic that makes them would be undone. A clone of a clone is even more at risk from this as well. As such, we will have to be careful to only make copies of the original."

"Understood."

"I am quite confident that the process is safe." She said, with some finality. Placing a Solar Crystal into her staff she handed it to Dark Ace's copy, and grinned evilly.

* * *

 Dark Ace returned to his chamber when he was called, and found the sight in front of him something he never in his life expected to see. Master Cyclonis, he assumed, and two clones of her, were standing around the machine she usually spent her time on. With the three of them working in perfect sync, he watched as the metal hands moved faster than ever, moving and placing Crystals at a rapid pace. 

"Master Cyclonis?" Dark Ace asked, turning to see his own clone watching the three girls as they worked their magic the same as him. 

"Ah, Dark Ace." One of them split off from the other two, neither giving any sign they noticed, other than shifting positions slightly. "I've decided the Cloning Crystal's benefits greatly outweigh any risks involved. That being said, creating a massive amount of clones of myself will quickly make things unstable, in terms of hierarchy."

Another of the Cyclonis looked over, smirking. "As often as I have wished for people as competent as myself to fill out Cyclonia's bureaucracy, we've come to the conclusion that we're too accustomed to leadership to be willing to submit to anyone."

The third stopped in her work to join the conversation. "As such, we will be equal, and there shall be no more clones made of Cyclonis."

"...Which one is the original?" Dark Ace asked, finding the disjointed conversation a little disturbing. 

"I am." The first one said, holding up her staff. Dark Ace noted that she was the only one of the three to be holding her usual favored tool. Cyclonis never went anywhere without her staff. She caught the look and smiled. "Yes, there's only one staff. It's a family heirloom after all. And it's an easy way of telling me from my clones."

"We'll make our own staffs once we have some free time." one of the clones said. "Ever since I first ascended to the position of 'Master', I've felt a little sad I never had the chance to design my own, like most Crystal specialists do."

The original Cyclonis looked at her staff proudly. "But it'll be hard to make something that can stand up to it."

"True."

Dark Ace watched the two clones speak with some nervousness. He didn't trust the copies, and his Master was being far more friendly with them than she was with... well, anyone. "Master, is there anything you wish for me to do?"

"Ah. Yes." the original Cyclonis brought out the blue pyramid, handing it to him. "I believe it's time for you to build a squad."

He glanced at his first copy, and the clone simply met his gaze. "If it is your will, Master Cyclonis."

"It is." she frowned, and patted him gently on the arm. "I know you feel... apprehensive about the Cloning Crystal, but imagine, Dark Ace. You yourself are a good portion of Cyclonia's military strength. Our sky navy is fearsome, but we might have been thwarted by Sky Knights long ago if it wasn't for you. Having multiple warriors of your caliber would aid the war effort immensely. Even if you are correct, and the clones have some weakness I have yet to locate, or are controlled by some other force, or are simply not trustworthy-" she smiled knowingly at her clones, who gave identical smiles back, not looking insulted, "-the benefits definitely outweigh the risks."

"I understand." he said, steeling himself and taking the pyramid. "How many?"

"The Crystal has approximately... I'd guess around five to six hundred uses left."

"Hundreds?!" 

"The legends did mention warlords summoning _armies_ to do their bidding. But for now, we'll start with three more. The average squad led by a Sky Knight is made of five pilots, correct?"

"Yes." he bristled at the implication, "But I am no Sky Knight, Master Cyclonis. There's no need to try and copy their outdated traditions."

"Alright. Then we'll make it six. A team of eight, like most Talon Squadrons. Gather your best supplies, and all the equipment you couldn't do without. Personal effects as well. I'll meet you in the main hangar, where your Sky Ride is. I'll provide you with an arsenal of Crystals as well. There's no reason to equip each of your clones separately, after all."

"Of course, Master Cyclonis. I'll make things ready." Dark Ace left to follow through on his orders, leaving the room to Cyclonis and the clones. 

She turned to Dark Ace's copy, "Have you given any more thought to a name?"

"As far as I'm concerned, Master Cyclonis, I might as well be Ace 2."

She shrugged. "I suppose it's up to you."


End file.
